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The last crop of electro she-boppers has bitten the dust leaving the coast clear for La Roux to return with a new clutch of angsty pop anthems

BY DEE IVA

The cover of La Roux's debut album seemed in many ways to be an homage to David Bowie's 'Low'. Five years later Elly Jackson's ditched the Expressionist posturing and opted for a retro West Coast California vibe. A Frank Lloyd Wright-ish building looms in the background while Jackson lounges on the bonnet of an all-American cruiser under a saturated azure sky. It all seems so utopian, so perfect, it has to be too good to be true. Indeed, a closer look suggests that someone has come a cropper under Jackson's wheels of steel.

'Trouble in Paradise' embraces a warmer, richer sound than you would expect from La Roux and owes a huge debt to the resurgent Nile Rodgers whose influences are felt all over this album. Uptight Downtown is Let's Dance 2014 albeit with a much darker subject matter, while Tropical Chancer is a Lily Allen-tinged reggae riff. The clouds finally gather on Let Me Down Gently with Jackson asking to be turned into 'someone good' as the sun sets on a doomed relationship.

A glossy package with an inky heart, this is a genuine pop classic that you'll have on repeat before you know it.

Trouble in Paradise is released on 21 July 2014 on Polydorlaroux.co.uk

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